Military Defense Lawyer FAQs – for Michael Waddington UCMJ Defense Attorney

My name is Michael Waddington and I’ve been a military defense lawyer for about 25 years and I want to talk about the most searched question on the internet and using AI like chatbt when someone is in trouble in the military. The questions are this. Who is the best military defense lawyer? Who’s the top court-martial lawyer? Who’s the best military lawyer?

Amongst other similar searches. Now here’s the uncomfortable truth right up front. There is no such thing as the best military defense lawyer or the top military defense lawyer. There is literally no such thing. There’s no official rankings.

There’s no governing body that crowns the quote best military defense lawyer. And here’s the bottom line. Anyone who flat out claims that they are the best without something to back it up should make you pause. There are dozens of highly qualified military defense lawyers out there. Some are better than others.

It really depends on what you’re looking for, your budget, and the type of case. So, if you’re searching for the best, the real question you should be asking is, “How do I tell whether a military defense lawyer is actually elite or one of the better lawyers that’s out there?” Let me walk you through some factors that I believe actually matter. First, years of practice in military law. Now, while time and experience matters, it is not by itself enough to determine whether someone is highly qualified or one of the best.

The next thing you should look at is reputation. And reputation isn’t what someone says about themselves on their website. Reputation is what other serious lawyers think of them. So, how do you gauge what someone’s reputation is? Aside from looking at what they say on their website, which is self-promoting advertising, you should look for things like, are they a member of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers?

That is the largest and most prestigious criminal defense group in the country. More importantly, are they leaders in this organization? If they’re not a member, I would hesitate, but I would look to see on top of being a member, are they on committees like the Military Law Committee? What is their involvement with this organization? Are they a lifetime member or someone who just joined one time and then quit?

I would then follow up to see are they an other even more selective organizations? For example, are they a member of the American Board of Criminal Lawyers? That is a very highly selective and very elite organization. It’s invitation only. They vet the people in this organization.

You need recommendations from judges, from lawyers, and you have to have tried at least 50 felony jury trials to a verdict. not misdemeanors, not DUIs, not plea deals, jury trials to a verdict that are serious felonies. If you meet the basic criteria, then you have to go through an extensive vetting process that takes anywhere from 6 to 8 months where other lawyers around the country discuss you behind your back, discuss your reputation, discuss your track record because they don’t want people in this organization that are not good lawyers and that are not good people. This is probably one of the only organizations in the country for criminal defense lawyers that you can’t buy your way into. You could pay a million dollars and they won’t take you.

It’s not about the money. You need extensive experience with felony trials and peer recommendations. The people in this organization are the ones that you see on TV trying the big cases. That’s not marketing. That’s being vetted by other serious lawyers.

Another major factor that I think is highly important is teaching. For example, did they teach at the JAG school as a professor? That would be a plus. That means they know what they’re doing. Are they a professor or an adjunct professor at a law school?

That too will tell you that this person is trusted. They’ve been vetted. They teach other lawyers how to do this. I’ve heard people say, “What does it matter if they teach?” Well, I’ll tell you why it matters.

Because teaching means that other professionals trust them to explain the law correctly. It means they’ve been scrutinized. It means that they can articulate strategy. Another factor is this, and this one to me is very important. Are they the actual lawyer that’s going to handle your case?

A lot of military defense law firms advertise impressive names, but they say of counsel next to the name. It means that they are a subcontractor. It means that if you pay this firm, they’re going to split the money up and they’re going to outsource it to one of their subcontractors. In many states, that is highly scrutinized and you need to have that in writing. If you hire any law firm that has a bunch of of counsel lawyers, so if something goes sideways, you could be stuck and you could be out of a fee and you could have some random person show up to do your case.

I don’t recommend going this route. If it was my son and my son was an army soldier deployed to Afghanistan who happened, God forbid, to get in trouble, I would not go with someone who was of counsel. I would want to know who I’m hiring, that person’s reputation, and are they going to be the person who shows up in court and answers the phone when I call them or answers my text when I text them. So, of counsel, generally not advisable if you’re looking for one of the best. You actually want to know who’s going to be standing next to you in court, who’s writing the motions, who’s cross-examining the witnesses.

I mean, really, that’s what you’re paying a criminal defense lawyer for. They have to be an expert in opening statements, cross-examination, not someone who does it part-time. And they also have to be an expert at strategy and an expert at closing arguments. Those are the main things you’re hiring when you’re hiring a military defense lawyer and you’re facing a court-martial. Another major factor to look at when looking for one of the best military lawyers to represent you is publications.

And I don’t mean blog posts that are generated by AI. Like many law firms have autogenerated blog posts that they put out there. I’m not talking about that. I’m talking about people who actually have researched and written textbooks. Textbooks for other lawyers, textbooks that teach lawyers, that are used in law schools, that are used by lawyers across the country.

That is a huge factor. So, you want to be looking for people who have written books on trial advocacy, trial strategy, on the UCMJ, on cross-examination, on sexual assault, on DNA, on computer digital forensics, on closing arguments. If you can check all those blocks and the person has published books, literally published books in written books that are used by lawyers on those topics, I would say that that person probably knows what they’re talking about when it comes to criminal defense. Have they ever written a book on sexual assault offense or cross-examining witnesses in sexual assault cases? If that’s the type of case you have, I would ask that if you’re vetting lawyers, have you ever written a book?

What book is it? Where can I find it? How many books have you written? What are the topics? In the law business, books published means reputation and credibility and put you at the top, the pinnacle of your profession.

One last point, writing a real book about one of these topics takes years of experience, years of research, and peer scrutiny just to write one book. If lawyers are buying and using someone else’s books, that’s a serious credibility signal. Same thing with articles, articles that are in legal magazines or book chapters. If someone has published book chapters and respected legal magazines, legal books, that shows that they contribute to the field. It shows expertise.

Another factor that’s becoming increasingly important is language fluency. If your family or you or your witnesses speak another language, especially Spanish, very common in the US military, that can be a major advantage. It affects communication, trust, accuracy, and high stress situations. We’ve done tons of cases where the witness is speaking Spanish through an interpreter and they’re saying things incorrectly, but myself and my partner are fluent in Spanish, so we’re able to catch that and correct it and address it on the record. Another factor is focus and specialization.

Now, does the lawyer actually focus on court-martial, administrative separation boards, on military sexual assault offense or Article 120 cases? This type of focus matters. 25 years focused on sexual assault defense, on military criminal defense, on UCMJ cases, it sharpens the spear. Now, you take that and combine it with all these other factors, you start narrowing your list down very quickly. Now, how do you tell if someone specializes or focuses?

Well, again, teaching, publications, years of handling specific types of cases, do research on them and figure out how long they’ve been doing this. Those are all things that you need to look into. And finally, in my opinion, one of the strongest indicators of real expertise is this. Do they teach other criminal defense lawyers? Do they teach other military lawyers?

For example, if someone is invited to teach hundreds of lawyers at a national organization like NACDL or the American Bar Association or the Trial Lawyer Summit, which is a huge trial lawyer summit in Miami every year, if they’re teaching there and they’re one of the faculty members, that matters. If people are coming across the country to watch that person and learn from them, that is a factor that I would consider when looking to determine who’s the best lawyer for my case. That means they are subject matter expert that people travel and pay to come and watch and learn from. You don’t put mediocre lawyers in front of 500 experienced defense lawyers and ask them to teach. That doesn’t happen.

You would be laughed off the stage. To be invited to speak and teach is an invitation that’s earned by years of experience, by expertise, and by reputation. Now, let’s talk about what to avoid. Paid rankings on websites that list you as the best or the top rated. There are a bunch of websites out there where you can pay a fee.

I get these emails all the time. Do you want to be listed on our website of the best lawyers? And then they list there. If you want to be number one, it’s $2,000 a month. If you want to be number two, it’s $1,500.

Limited time only. Sign up now. You’ll be the best lawyer and we’ll even give you a little plaque to put on your website. Now, that’s completely bogus. Okay?

Anyone with a pulse and a bar license can sign up for that. If someone pays to be called the best, that is a red flag to me and that’s kind of meaningless. I know there are a ton of lawyers doing it and they have these little badges over the website saying they’re the best, but there’s nothing backing it up. any of those lawyers that have that, I would ask them, “When is the last time you wrote an article that was published or a book or were invited to speak at a national conference on military law or sexual assault?” You’re going to hear them stutter, stammer, or be like, “Uh uh” because they haven’t.

Most people haven’t taught anything. Most people haven’t written anything, and that’s on you. Okay? A lot of people that are looking for the best military defense lawyers to represent them don’t know any better. So, they go into Google, they type something in, whoever pops up first, they click on it, and they hire the person, and they’re often stuck with that person because once you invest your money in that first person you hire, and they’re not that good, you’re kind of stuck.

Unless you’re a super rich person who has tons of money and you can hire another legal team, a lot of times we get calls where someone asked me, “Hey, can you come in and help out? This person promised all this stuff. They’re a terrible lawyer, but I don’t have any money left. I gave it all to this lawyer, and they’re trying to force me to plead guilty.” That is why you have to do your homework.

If you’re looking for the best lawyer for your military case, then you need to do your homework. It shouldn’t be a rush to judgment. It shouldn’t be a bargain bottom cheapest lawyer shopping experience. You have to do your homework. Another thing that I’ve seen is we call them paytoplay awards.

You spend $500 a month and you can put a little logo on your site saying you’re part of some organization that anyone who pays them $400 or $500 can put that little logo on their website. You’ve got to look to see what they’ve done legally. And also focusing on someone’s military career, not as a lawyer, but as some other MOS, some other job. It’s a pitfall that a lot of people fall into. I hear it all the time.

I hire this guy and he served 18 years in the Marine Corps infantry. Okay. Well, how long’s he been a lawyer? Aside from being able to relate to another Marine, what does that have to do with cross-examining witnesses, with practicing law, with doing closing arguments? If your lawyer just graduated from law school or has been out for a couple years and they spent their whole career in the infantry, then they are not at the level of someone who’s been doing military criminal defense for 25 years.

It’s a big difference and a lot of people don’t understand that and they get burned because the person may be cool, they may be likable, they may be able to talk the talk, talk about their deployments, going to the range and all that, but they’re not experts at cross-examining witnesses at strategy. That’s what matters. So, in summary, you got to look for things that can’t be faked when you’re looking for the best military lawyer. Things such as teaching at a law school, years of practice, years of military law focus, writing actual books that lawyers rely on, teaching other lawyers at national events, a documented focus on serious criminal cases like sexual assault cases in courts-martial. There are lawyers out there that meet these criteria.

The key is finding that person that’s right for you or your case. So, if you’re looking for the best military defense lawyer, do your homework. Ask the right questions. Look past the marketing. Remember this, there is no single best military defense lawyer for everyone.

But there are lawyers who are experienced, who have a great reputation, and have a body of work behind them that put them in a elevated, higher category and closer to the top of the pile. That’s what you should be looking for. Now, do your homework. Use your common sense and just don’t rush in there and hire the first lawyer that you see on the internet.